High damage cone AOE nuke. Does more damage than disintegrate but has twice the cooldown, which is why it is maxed second. Later on it becomes your aoe stun if ulti is not up. Don't always only use stun on disintegrate when ulti is down.

Ultimate nuke, very much like inferno in DotA. It's a high damage AOE with slightly better AP scaling that your other nukes. Don't underestimate the damage, with tibber's immolation and high attack damage, the damage is actually increased by around 100-200 damage. Tibbers' movespeed is actually faster than a lot of hero's movespeed if they don't have boots. USE ALT + CLICK TO CONTROL BEAR! DO NOT MANUALLY CLICK BEAR AND CONTROL. It can also be used to pathblock opponents after being drops, and it will help buy that one extra second needed to kill an opponent.

Introduction

Annie - fairly underused in lower and average level games. For some reason she doesn't have the attractiveness that is so commonly found in heroes such as vlad/sona/anivia. However, Annie is ridiculous. Huge burst potential with stun and decent survivability means that she is highly viable in higher level play. Her ability to solo is also vastly underrated, as not many people know how to abuse her skills early game.

Masteries + Runes

You really only need Archaic Knowledge in offensive tree. The rest can go in utility for more regen + cooldowns.

Please note that this is to boost overall usefulness and survivability in games. I know that there are people who prefer higher damage output over survivability/cooldown/regen, so if your one of those people, go for magic penetration for marks and gylphs and then straight +AP runes for seals and quints. It sucks mid-late game though, just tellin' you.

Summoner Abilities

Summoner Skills: Annie is highly versatile with summoner skills since she already have stun + high damage.
*Flash - gives her more survivability and allows her to chase/initiate with stun or get out of team clashes.
*Ignite- Another nuke for your arsenal. Try to get it on as fast as possible to prevent heals.

Other choices:
Teleport - For ya know, teleporting. Preventing BD and such. It can also be used to tele-gank, although i wouldnt take it just for that unless your premading and just fooling around.
Ghost - Not as useful for annie as flash, since flash allows for better initiation with Tibbers.

Items

Start with either:

1. Doran's Shield- More health, armor, and health regen, so you can be more aggressive.

2. Sapphire Crystal+ potions- Due to changes to dorans, this build will give good mana and potions, which are useful if you know your facing harassment.

3. Boots of Speed+ 3 pots- Another viable build. Suitable if your very aggressive, as boots allow you catch up to your enemy and pots allow for quick heals from creep/tower damage. More of a solo mid/top build due to lack of survivability and spammability of spells.

After that:

Boots of Speed Cuz you need to move fast, and only if you didn't start with boots.

Mejai's Soulstealer ONLY IF YOU ARE DOING WELL AND YOU KNOW YOUR TEAM CAN KEEP YOU ALIVE. Otherwise, this is just a waste of money if your getting pummeled. Usually not a good idea in ranked games unless its one-sided.

Rod of Ages If you get can get this early enough (pre 25-minute mark), then go for it. It offers more health, AP, and mana, and that's never a bad thing.

Upgrade your boots. Mercury's Treads against slow/stun team, and Sorcerer's Shoes if not worried about survival, not to mention it gives more magic penetration. The new CD boots are an option, but annie already has pretty low CD for most of her spells, so that CD won't be making too much of a difference after runes and masteries. Most of the time its gonna be merc though.

Decision Time
Heres where items get situational, if you need survivability, or are facing Blitz, Morg, or Ashe, then:

Banshee's Veil Your gonna need to survive in team clashes, especially late game when a single stun or nuke can basically force you to back off. It offers valuable HP and Mana, and the magic resistance and spell block is INVALUABLE, especially if their team is caster heavy. Who wants to focus an Annie with Molten Shield and spellblock on at the same time? Even if they do try to take your down, your team will be able to gain significant time to return the favor. I always get this late game, unless their team is super dps heavy.

If all is well, then: Rabadon's Deathcap The definition of pure AP damage. It will give you a huge boost to damage.

Then fill in remaining spots according to your current situation:

Void Staff because your AP scaling isn't amazing, and magic penetration/reduction will provide more of a benefit. Get Abyssal if your facing lots of nukes/casters or if there are other main casters on your team. Otherwise go for the void staff since it's much cheaper and very effective against those magic resist stackers.

Zhonya's Hourglass Now that they've revamped it, it's actually quite usefull, especially if your focused hard by their whole team/against DPS. Unload your spells and laugh in their face as they click on you with all their might while your allies rape. Did i mention it gives a lot of AP?

Rylai's Crystal Scepter Another late game item. This offers each of your spells a slow, and gives a huge chunk of health for annie. Less worries about people getting away or not surviving is always good. Both your shield and tibbers aoe will slow, which means that it can buy you valuable time when being chased.

Special mention: Quicksilver Sash Completely underrated. Its the perfect answer to those CC heavy teams when banshee's isn't enough. Enemy teams will rely on CC to stop you from doing too much damage, this is just a get out of jail free card.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Items are situational, and of course you can win with other builds.

Skilling Order

There are two ways to start Annie, beginning with either Incinerate or Disintegrate. The difference is that Disintegrate gives better farming capabilities, since you can start last hitting at level one. This is most useful when you are soloing a lane, since you wont be getting first blood now (unless your team is going hunting for first blood), and getting a quickly level and money advantage is key. Going incinerate first means that you can get a stun, because you can spam it 5 times at fountain/on the way to your lane, and it also deals more burst damage than disintegrate. It's more useful early game in a dual lane since it can land a first blood faster and the aoe is helpful in case of an early team clash. It also comes in handy in your team decides to gank pre-laning phase.

So...
1. Incinerate/Disintegrate
2.which ever one you didn't pick

Then max disintegrate and then incinerate, getting Timbers whenever possible. Some people prefer to get a level of molten shield at level 5 to charge up stuns faster, but i prefer to get more burst damage. You can choose which one you like better. Finish molten shield last. Some people might wonder why we level disintegrate over incinerate even though incinerate does more damage. The reason is because disintegrate's cooldown is half as long as incinerate, so the actual damage over 8 seconds is higher with disintegrate than incinerate. Not to mention incinerate's lack of spamability and hefty mana cost.

Disintegrate build:

Incinerate Build:

Farming

Use disintegrate to last hit creeps. It costs no mana so use it as much as possible. Once you get a decent amount of AP and magic penetration, you can start using incinerate to one hit ranged creeps when they stack. You can also use incinerate to farm wraiths since they usually go down in one hit once you level up disintegrate to level 4 or 5. Try to get some help getting the Golem rune, since the cooldown reduction and mana regen is really useful.

Ganking/ First Blood

It's preferable that every time that you get a stun you harass your enemy with your two nukes. However, not everyone is gonna stand there and take your nukes when they see that you've got a stun up. That is why I'd suggest that prior to you going for the kill, harass them while your stun is down. They usually don't expect it since you usually farm when stun is down.

Basically, this will keep the enemy hero to around 1/2 life or lower by the time you get Tibbers. If you can finish them up with your 2 nuke combo previous to that, then go ahead. If not, once you get to level 6, get a stun and initiate with Tibbers. For some reason, people tend to use Tibbers last, but by doing that you are wasting the damage that Tibbers could have been doing through his aura and attacks. Also note that his aoe is pretty large. So basically, the order then becomes:

Working in the team

Annie can initiate, but i prefer to let a tank initiate with a slow and then start the above combo on some poor soul. STAY ALIVE. Flash out if your too much in the middle and then go back in. Remember to focus their caster or carry first. If an ally is being chased, unleashing incinerate/disintegrate will sometimes cause them to back off.

Enemies

So here's what can give you trouble:

Veigar- Besides the fact that he can one combo most of your team, his ulti will do at least half of your health. Couple that with an aoe stun and the ability to hit 600+ ap easily, it's gonna be a battle to see who can stun who first and combo. He NEEDS TO GET FOCUSED in teamfights, or else you can say goodbye to one of your allies.

Kassadin-Similar to veigar, but harder to take down. Focus him when you can, and be wary of his position. His silence can ruin your damage capabilities, so make sure your allies know to CC him as soon as he appears.

Poppy- Well built poppys can take out 3/4 of almost anyone's health with 1 combo. Expect to drop the remaining 1/4 within the next 5 seconds. Don't stay in the front of your team, as you do not want to be utlied. However, if you are, don't waste tibbers him. Stun him and keep spamming spells to get your stun up as fast as possible. You want to kite him for as long as possible till ulti is over. If he ultis another ally, DO NOT FOCUS HIM. Focus someone else until ulti is over.

Vlad-Be aware of how farmed he is and his CD for pool. It can completely negate tibbers and the majority of your combo.

Anivia- Get caught in wall or flashfrost and your dead. Huge aoe damage, lots of survivability wih egg. Egg her then focus others and then focus her. Do not commit too much to killing her. She can easily kite a whole team.

Jungle Rammus- Watch for ganks. Taunt can ruin your ability to initiate or even combo at all.

Summary

Annie is one of the best casters in the game, and rightly so. Her short cooldowns along with her amazing burst damage capability makes her very much feared in higher level ELO play.

Please, if you've enjoyed this guide, RATE IT. All comments and criticisms are welcome. Whether it's a positive rating or a negative one, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you vote. If you haven't voted in the past election or couldn't vote, here's your chance to make up for it. :D